breakfast cuties

Lizzie and Jackson were too cute this morning. They love to eat breakfast outside every day. (This is mostly because mommy pushes them outside so she doesn't have to clean up a huge mess in the kitchen.) You just can't beat pancakes, scrambled eggs and chocolate milk on a lovely summer morn.

That chocolate milk made the best mustache. Strike a pose girl!

A Day at the Farm

We have a fun activity planned for the moms and kids each Friday during the summer. Last week we went to the Fresno State Farm. The kids thought it was great. They found a horse that looked like Spirit - you know, from the movie, Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron. Trevor loved that movie years ago and was obsessed with this horse. "Spirit" at the farm even wore real horseshoes! (The kids were fascinated with the horseshoes.) My favorite was the pigs. They were such cute little piglets, but the bigger they got, the uglier and stinkier they got too. Ew! Enjoy our slideshow of a fun trip to the farm.

Little Lucy Lou

We drove to San Luis to meet our new niece, Lucy. She is the sweetest little pink thing. Oh, I was eating her up! Lizzie thought she was pretty great too. She kept saying, "I just want to pet her. Her hair is so soft." Jackson, on the other hand, was a little disinterested. Kelly and Julio looked great. They love their new baby so much already and are enduring the first days of parenthood really well. Jeremy' sister Kristen was there too. She came to stay a few days and help out. What a great gal. We had a nice visit with lots of baby time. We are happy that Lizzie will have another girl cousin to play with.

Soakin it all in

So Fresno is going crazy right now over the baseball teams national championship. Matt and I are trying to soak the experience in as much as possible because who knows when it will happen again. What better way then to take the kids with Mom and Dad to the welcome home parade held at the campus. Even better, I think that the rest of Fresno feels the same way. I've never seen so many happy people at any gathering, it was like it was christmas morning for the town of Fresno.

Emma and Maddy made a great sign to show the players. Coach Batesole got all the people in his cart to check it out. It was a very proud moment for Matt. The photographer for Fresno Magazine stopped to take a few pictures of the kids and get names.
Hopefully we'll see them in next month's issue.

There was quite a large group there. The crowd got quite a bit thicker closer to the stadium.

And I thought I was a fan. This guy got a tattoo (apparently sometime last night) that he was very proudly displaying for the players as they came past. I'm not sure what to say about that... (actually I think his kids faces say it all)


The kids (and the Dad's) thought it was pretty cool to see the team as they came by.




College World Series Most Outstanding Player Tommy Mendonca in the front and game hero last night Steve Detwiler right behind him.

My Dad took our family when I was around seven to the last big parade Fresno had when the basketball team won the NIT. I vaguely remember the experience. Hopefully we'll have more of these experiences in the years to come, in the mean time were trying to enjoy the moment and hope we don't have to wait as long for the next one.

Oh and for Kristen and Julio, yes you will be hearing about this for the rest of your life. Shoulda been a Bulldog!

Gotta Love Those Dogs!

Being a Fresno State fan is not always easy. Matt and I have often said over the years that the bulldogs are the only thing that ever broke our hearts. That was not the case today. Today was a great day, the greatest day ever to be a Bulldog fan. Lowest seed in NCAA history to win a championship IN ANY SPORT. Incredible. My favorite quote of the night came from pitcher Justin Wilson,

"Cinderella? This wasn't about Cinderella. This was about the Bulldogs".



Thank you Bulldogs for the great ride.

Nameless Recognition

I came to work on Monday to find my school totally trashed with art style paint all over the school. Tagged, splattered, dumped all over. One of the more unfortunately aspects of my job. Believe it or not, this kind of stuff does not happen very often at my school, but when it does it sure feels good to find the individuals responsible. Fortunately for us, these guys did it all in front of one of the many cameras on campus. Not too bright. Check out the article below. It is amazing how much damage can be done in such a little amount of time. Even more amazing is how much time and effort it takes to clean it all up...

News briefs

06/23/08

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3 boys held in vandalism Three boys, 12, 13 and 15 years old, were booked into Fresno County Juvenile Detention Facility on suspicion of burglary and felony vandalism Monday after a break-in at Sequoia Middle School, Fresno police reported.

Damages at the school at 4050 E. Hamilton were estimated at more than $5,000, Sgt. Mark Hudson said. The damages took place Sunday night after vandals broke into the art room and used paint to cause graffiti damage throughout the school.

A school vice principal reviewed school video surveillance tapes and discovered that one of the juveniles attended summer school and was in class. After calling the student into the office, the vice principal discovered the identity of the other two juveniles and notified police.

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Nice Shoes!

I know he looks unhappy, but he was pretty pleased with himself when he got these pretty pretty clack clack shoes on all by himself. They made a great sound as he walked across our hard floors. He was trying to do his "housework" in his heels - note the dustpan...

Father's Day 2008

Here was Jeremy's Father's Day breakfast in bed - fresh baked cinnamon rolls, milk, fruit and a Diet Pepsi on the side. (Those flowers are from our front yard!)



We tried to get a great "Father and kids" picture before we left for church, this was the best picture out of the 12 or so that I took.


These kids love their daddy something fierce! He is a rock star when he comes home from work every day. "Daddy will you jump with me?" "Daddy will you swim with me?" "Daddy can we work on my boat for cub scouts now?" "Daddy this, Daddy that" that's all we hear until bedtime. And he is so good - he never denies their requests. He always swims or jumps or works on projects as they ask. He loves to spend time with them just as much as they love the attention. He is the best daddy around and we all love him to pieces. Happy Father's Day, babe. You rock.

A San Francisco Treat

For Father's Day weekend we made a trip to San Francisco. Matt & Aimee and her parents also made the trip with us. It all started with the idea that our kids have never seen a live professional baseball game and we thought they needed to have that experience. But we couldn't make a trip all the way to SF just to watch a Giants baseball game - what kind of a trip would that be?!

Our first stop was to the San Francisco Exploratorium. The kids ATE. IT. UP. They were totally enthralled with each and every interactive display. There really was something for everyone - check out Jackson with the toilet/drinking fountain display - he was diggin' it. We highly recommend this place for families of all ages.



We stopped in Chinatown for a quick sight-see and souvineer. The kids were so excited to visit this place. I don't know quite what they were expecting, but it met and exceeded their expectations. We took them into a little gift shop and they were in hog heaven. It took them almost an hour to finally decide what they wanted to buy. Jackson was loving this broom. He really does love to sweep - I know, that's weird, but he thinks it's the best thing ever. He picked it out for himself.


On our way over to the stadium, Jeremy decided to take us on a little journey through the streets of San Francisco. The picture doesn't do it justice, but the steepness of this road was almost unbearable! The kids thought it was great and mommy was freaking out!


We got to the stadium about 30 mintues before the game and had time to go get dinner. That ballpark dinner cost us a small fortune, but we were all happy and full after we'd eaten. I had never been to the new AT&T park before and was amazed by the grandeur of it all. Our seats were pretty high up there and from where we sat it looked like the whole stadium would topple over into the water. The kids got restless about an hour into the game so we walked the stadium and had fun on the attractions for the kids. We stayed till the very end of the game trying to enjoy every moment before we hopped in the car to go home.

It was a good day. Good kids. Good times. We hope they'll remember this day for the rest of their lives. That's why we do these things for our kids after all.

Do you remember your first baseball game?

Baby Lucy is Here!

Kelly and Julio's family grew by one on Saturday, June 14th! Kelly was admitted to the hospital on Thursday and Lucy finally arrived Saturday morning around 7AM. It was a long labor, but worth the wait. Look at that cute face!

Kelly and Julio, we are so happy for your new addition. You are already great parents. Enjoy these first moments - she will be fresh and new for such a short time. Love to you THREE.

Here's a little slideshow of Lucy modeling all her baby bows. There is nothing cuter than a baby girl with a huge bow on her small head.

Jackson Strikes Again

Yesterday morning I walked into the boys' room and found this:

Jackson was perched next to the tank talking and talking about "pish! pish!". An entire package of mints had been dumped into the fish tank. Not just any mints... no, no, no, they were bacon flavored mints. Mmmmm. (If you look closely you can see the white mints in the fake plant and Jackson's reflection in the tank.)

Well, I was ticked again over his antics. (You'd think I'd be getting used to this by now and learn not to get so upset! Oi!) I banished Jackson from the house and we set to cleaning out the tank.

BEFORE:

(Can you see the white swirling bacon mint particles?)

AFTER:

After about an hour we finally had it all cleaned up. We found a few treasures in that dirty water - a race car, a magic wand, and 2 DS stylus pens.

Oh yeah, and once again there was cereal, TRIX cereal, sprinkled all over the kitchen floor for me to clean up. Yeah, he knew he was busted. Just look at that face!

Kung Fu Jack Black!

Tonight we took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda. Hee-yuh! We all loved it! Yes! We were leery of taking our Jackson monster along because he usually won't sit through even the first 20 minutes of a movie, but he did really well. He was totally into it - mimicking the characters and even laughing at appropriate times (keep your eyes peeled for an awesome bum squashing slow-mo sequence!). Trev, Log and Lizzie were mesmerized the whole time.

Our favorite quote from the movie, "Treat each day as a gift. That's why they call it the present." How awesome is that? A little uplifiting message sandwiched into your entertainment - you can't beat that.

We stayed through most of the credits and were surprised that we didn't recognize more of the big names... Jack Black (he MADE the movie - his humor was perfect for animation), Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu and Jackie Chan.

We totally recommend this movie to families of all ages. We'll probably go see it again - it was that good. We give it 5 dumplings out of 5.

He did it again

This week was rough....

First we had the computer keys incident. Click here to read that post if you missed it.

Then there was yesterday... Mr. Jackson Boy was at it again. (Let me tell you the preface to this story first... About a month ago Jackson got out our nice Kitchen Aid blender to play with. This is a GLASS JAR blender people. Of course he dropped it and watched it shatter into a million pieces. A month and $35 later, I repaced the jar and now we have a blender again.) So I had our "new" blender up on the counter. Safe. Out of the 2 year old reach. Yeah right. He pushed up a bench. Climbed up onto the counter and slid the blender over for easy access. He took all of my fresh, made from scratch banana chocolate chip muffins and shoved them all into the blender. I happened upon him a few minutes after he filled the blender with muffins and screeched when I saw what he was doing. Luckily there was no breaking of the new blender. He was play cooking and was not in destructive mode after all. Thank heavens! But the muffins were in a sad state after I rescued them from the blender - hey, the kids needed an after school snack later - did you think I'd chuck them?

So today was yet another story all together. I was folding laundry upstairs, again. I ran down the stairs to grab something and this awful - yet sweet - smell hit my nose. It was the stench of maple syrup. (I cannot stand maple syrup - I don't know why - I must've had a bad experience with it somewhere in my past.) Our living room is at the bottom of the stairs and as I turned I saw wet marks all over the ottoman. I put my nose to it and yep! You guessed it - syrup. My eyes followed a wet trail from the ottoman and saw that it was EVERYWHERE, dripped all the way through the kitchen to the front door. We have our awesome brick floor that disguises all messes, but I was panicky and frantic as I realized how easily this mess could go from big to monstrous. One little step in the syrup could leave sticky footprints ALL over the house! My emotions got the better of me and the tears flooded. I was so frustrated with all the annoying messes my sweet Jackson could conjure up and was exhausted with trying to keep up with it all. I ran back up the stairs and told Jeremy what had happened (I think I may have had a crazed look in my eye because he jumped up from his afternoon siesta and came to my rescue immediately.) We scrubbed and mopped and scrubbed and mopped, but if you come over I'm sure you'll smell a faint maple air freshener scent.

So, I would like to know... does this happen to anyone else? Does your 2 year old do something aggravating every day and several times a day? I really do try to be a good mom, but seriously - how am I supposed to get stuff done if I'm following him around ALL DAY LONG?

Sorry for the rant - I think I'm still trying to recover from the permeating maple syrup stench that's stuck in my nose. Oh, and sorry, no pictures this time - it just didn't feel like a kodak moment at the time.

These boys are big time

Trevor and Logan both received certificates at their end-of-the-year awards ceremony this year.

Logan earned writer of the month for May. His teacher says he is so creative and has such great content in his stories when he writes.

Trevor received Honor Roll for the first time ever, I think. He worked so hard this last quarter (due mostly to the incentives laid out by Jeremy) to get all A's and B's.

The most rewarding part of this whole award ceremony is the looks on the boys' faces. They know they've accomplished something great and they are proud of themselves. We are so proud of both of our school boys. They try hard and do their best. What a great way to end the year. Way to go boys!

Terrible twos are TERRIBLE!

Jackson, Jackson, Jackson. I thought he was a little too quiet this morning. Later, I thought he was carrying around a baggie full of Legos. Even later, I went into my room to fold laundry and saw this:

AH! Those were not Legos in his bag! They were computer keyboard keys and parts! Needless to say, I was FREAKING OUT. First of all I could see my whole day going down the drain for his few minutes of destruction. And secondly (yes, I thought of myself first and my husband second - awful, I know.) this computer isn't even ours! It belongs to FUSD. He loves to pop off those little keys - they make such a good popping sound when they fly off. I've had to repair laptops before when he's pulled off only a few keys and it's taken FOR-EV-ER. Those tiny little white plastic pieces are a nightmare to put back together.

So I freaked out a little more and scoured the 3 foot area where he worked this thing and collected as many pieces as I could find. I sat down to piece this puzzle back together and realized the first 2 keys took about 10 minutes! How long was this going to take?! I had to find a picture of the exact same keyboard online - do you know where all the keys go on a laptop? Not all keyboards are created equal - I'll tell you that right now. My fingers found their groove and it only took a total of about 45 minutes all together. So here I type on my newly put back together keyboard and I notice that not all the keys feel just right. Maybe I didn't find all the pieces after all.

This is only one of our many "Jackson Monster" stories. Remember this one with the toilet and floor repair. Oh yes, and how many fish has he killed in our little fish tank? Who knows! Do you have a two-year-old moment like this one?

So in the last 10 minutes that I've taken to type up this post Jackson emptied an entire box of Cocoa Pebbles onto the kitchen floor and dumped buckets of toilet water onto the floor in the upstairs bath. All I can say is thank heavens for naptime!